Lionel Wilson, Ex-Mayor of Oakland, Dies / First black to hold post, he served three terms

Rick DelVecchio, Chronicle Staff Writer

Published
4:00 am PST, Thursday, January 29, 1998

Former Oakland Mayor Lionel Wilson, a fiery competitor and compassionate judge who brought justice and opportunity to black residents who had felt shut out for generations, has died at his home.

Wilson, Oakland's first black mayor, was 82 and had been suffering from cancer.

Wilson had not discussed his health even with close friends and family members, who were shocked yesterday when they got the news from the Alameda County Sheriff's Department.

Sergeant Jim Knudsen said a copy of a death certificate filed with the coroner's office showed that Wilson died of cancer Friday in his Montclair district home.

Wilson was born in New Orleans on March 4, 1915, and moved to Oakland with his family when he was 3. His career was shaped by the discrimination he experienced as a talented black man growing up in an era of segregation.

He was an excellent tennis, baseball and basketball player, but his athletic prime came a decade before Jackie Robinson broke the color barrier, and he was denied opportunities in major league professional sports.

Instead, he graduated from the University of California at Berkeley, earned a degree from Hastings College of the Law and became a civil rights lawyer. In 1960, he became Alameda County's first black judge when Governor Edmund G. (Pat) Brown appointed him to the bench.

He was elected to the first of his three terms as mayor in 1977, ending a long reign of Republican control of Oakland City Hall. It was a turning point in Oakland's political history, coming at a time when whites were fleeing the city and blacks energized by the civil rights and anti-war movements were demanding a role in decision-making.

As mayor, he was a pioneer for affirmative action in local government, and used his skills as a negotiator to make a mark on the city's economy -- the skyline of downtown Oakland, though still incomplete, is largely a result of his development and economic policies.

TIDE TURNED AGAINST HIM

Wilson easily won re-election in 1981 and 1985 but failed badly in his bid for a fourth term, finishing third in the primary in 1990. In part, he was defeated by the costs of his aggressive economic advocacy, as residents became irate over subsidies for downtown development and the city's pro sports teams.

Perhaps the greatest political damage to Wilson came at the hands of Raiders boss Al Davis. After the Raiders moved to Los Angeles in 1982, Oakland sued to take over the franchise on the grounds that the team was vital to the city's economy. The novel angle proved a loser in court, and the city had to put up millions in legal fees.

In 1989, Wilson supported a plan to lure back the Raiders with taxpayer subsidies. A powerful citizen backlash scuttled the deal.

"I think people will describe Lionel's mayoralty as a transition period," said former City Manager Henry Gardner. "It was a transition as far as what was happening in the political culture. But Lionel was hardly a transition mayor. He was very clear about what his agenda was. He had very strong feelings about the importance of opening City Hall to minorities and women, and all minorities, not just African Americans."

Wilson was a centrist who brought to politics the old-fashioned values bred into him from his West Oakland childhood. He got along with the local kids who had become radicalized and formed the Black Panther Party. As the head of a local anti-poverty program in the 1960s, he helped future party co-founder Bobby Seale get a job at the agency.

And he mixed equally well with business leaders who represented the old guard. Wilson was as concerned with the city's deteriorating economy as with civil rights and affirmative action.

An estimated $1 billion worth of construction came during his term, and another $1 billion was planned. Landmarks of the Wilson era include the City Center complex, a downtown hotel and convention center and new federal and state office buildings.

PRAISE FROM FRIENDS, FOES

"He was certainly a great leader for Oakland," said Councilman Dick Spees, a conservative by Oakland standards who was often at odds with Wilson. "He was a person who was very progressive in his politics and his personal belief system, but at the same time he was moderate and even conservative in regard to finances."

Wilson pushed his policies through despite operating under Oakland's "weak mayor" form of government, in which the mayor is but one vote on the nine-member City Council. His job was to line up a five-vote majority, and colleagues said he never gaveled open a public meeting without knowing the score beforehand.

"That's why he'd sit there like a judge," said West Oakland activist Paul Cobb. "He didn't worry. There were no surprises on the floor."

Former Councilwoman Mary Moore, who was first elected on Wilson's slate in 1977, said Wilson could be jealous of competitors or bored with the details of the job, but his brains and compassion shone through.

REACHING OUT TO GRASS ROOTS

"All the people who came from that generation had to be super people to start with," she said. "Basically, he had real strong, clear values. . . . I would say they were old-fashioned liberal values. He had a tremendous feeling for ordinary people."

Toni Adams, a former Wilson staffer, told of the day a felon whom Wilson had sent to prison as a judge came to visit him.

"He just came in to say how important he (Wilson) was in his life, even though he had thrown him in jail," Adams said. "He said (Wilson) talked to him like a man and helped him understand what was happening."

Wilson loved such encounters and remained in Oakland despite opportunities to make a name for himself elsewhere. He turned down a chance to be appointed to the state Supreme Court before running for mayor, a part-time job that paid $15,000.

"Lionel Wilson's bailiff asked him one day in that last year he was on the Alameda County Superior Court bench where he had gotten the cigars. 'Huey Newton sent them to me from Cuba,' he told us was his reply. We all howled many times over the plain truth. . . . This was Lionel Wilson. He was everything he said he was, even if he didn't seem to be. He believed in truth, and in love, and in freedom."

STRUGGLE WITH FAILING HEALTH

Friends said Wilson was proud of his athleticism and became upset in recent years when his body began to fail. They were disturbed, but not surprised, that the man who had given his life to public service elected to end it privately, with only his wife, Dorothy, sharing the experience.

"They wanted some peaceful time together," said Bill Patterson, one of Wilson's closest friends. "His life had always been public. Dorothy paid the price for that, because he was always out there in the community he loved."

In addition to his wife, Wilson is survived by three sons, Lionel B. Wilson and Steven Wilson of Oakland and Robin Wilson of Sacramento; brothers Harold, Kermit and Warren Wilson, all of Oakland, and Julius Wilson of Castro Valley; and a sister, Marie Anderson of San Leandro.